Minimizing operational costs by restructuring the blood sample collection chain. (December 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Elalouf, Amir; Hovav, Sharon; Tsadikovich, Dmitry; Yedidsion, Liron
• Is Part Of: Operations research for health care. Volume 7(2015:Dec.)
• Page Start: 81
• Page End: 93
• Publication Date: 2015-12
• Subjects: Blood sample collection -- Logistics -- FPTAS -- Facility location; Medical care -- Mathematical models -- Periodicals; Medical policy -- Mathematical models -- Periodicals; Health services administration -- Mathematical models -- Periodicals; Operations research -- Periodicals; Operations Research -- Periodicals; Health Services Research -- Periodicals; Health Policy -- Periodicals; Delivery of Health Care -- Periodicals; 362.106805
• DOI: 10.1016/j.orhc.2015.08.004
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2211-6923

Abstract

Abstract: This work focuses on improving the structure of a three-echelon blood sample collection chain operated by a health maintenance organization. The chain comprises clinics, where samples are collected from patients; centrifuge centers, where blood is separated into its components; and a centralized testing laboratory, where samples are analyzed. Under the assumption that some clinics can be provided with in-house centrifugation facilities instead of being assigned to centrifuge centers, a problem is formulated for identifying how many centrifuge centers should be established in order to optimally support the collection process. An exact dynamic programming (DP) algorithm and a fully polynomial time approximation scheme (FPTAS) algorithm are designed to solve this problem.